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  • Trump sued for 'incitement to riot' and terrorism over Capitol attack by House Democrat who served as impeachment manager

    "Trump directly incited the violence at the Capitol ... and then watched approvingly as the building was overrun," the suit states.

  • In Brazil's Amazon, isolated indigenous people welcome COVID vaccine

    YAUARETÊ, Brazil (Reuters) - An army helicopter flew to two isolated indigenous villages in Brazil's Amazon jungle this week with a welcome cargo - coronavirus vaccines. Traditional medicine prescribed by a shaman is highly respected here, but there was no resistance to receiving the vaccine by China's Sinovac Biotech. "We are grateful for the vaccination, so we will not catch the disease," said Hupda chieftain Jorge Pires in the village of Santo Antanasio, near the Colombian border and a 25-minute helicopter flight from the nearest military outpost.

  • House Impeachment Manager Eric Swalwell Sues Trump for Inciting Capitol Riot

    Reuters/Joshua RobertsRep. Eric Swalwell, the California Democrat who spearheaded impeachment arguments against Donald Trump earlier this year, has sued the former president and some of his most powerful allies for their roles in inciting the deadly Capitol insurrection.The lawsuit was filed Friday and it aims to hold Trump—as well as his son Donald Trump Jr., Rudy Giuliani, and Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL)—accountable for inflaming tensions ahead of the Jan. 6 riot. All four men spoke at the rally outside the White House before the attack.Swalwell’s lawsuit is just the latest legal blow to Trump—it follows a similar lawsuit that Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and the NAACP served to Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club last week. Like Thompson’s suit, it cites the 1871 Ku Klux Klan Act, which was designed to protect lawmakers from violence and intimidation.But Swalwell’s suit—which was filed in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., by the law firm KaiserDillon PLLC—goes further and accuses Trump and his key allies of breaking anti-terrorism laws, aiding and abetting violent rioters, and intentionally inflicting “severe emotional distress” on lawmakers who were at the Capitol that day.The complaint alleges: “As a direct and foreseeable consequence of the Defendants’ false and incendiary allegations of fraud and theft, and in direct response to the Defendants’ express calls for violence at the rally, a violent mob attacked the U.S. Capitol.”Swalwell argues that, as a result of Trump’s role in inciting the riot, he should be forced to pay financial damages and, in the future, be made to provide written notice seven days in advance of a rally or public event hosted in Washington on an important election day.The lawsuit concludes: “The defendants, in short, convinced the mob that something was occurring that—if actually true—might indeed justify violence, and then sent that mob to the Capitol with violence-laced calls for immediate action.”During his trial, Trump’s lawyers repeatedly denied that he was responsible for the attack on the Capitol, and asserted that the then-president was protected by the First Amendment when he urged his supporters outside the White House to “fight like hell” to “stop the steal.”In response to the suit, Trump spokesman Jason Miller reportedly said in a statement, “Eric Swalwell is a low-life with no credibility.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

  • QAnon predicted Trump’s re-inauguration on 4 March. Congress braced for an assault. Neither happened

    Two months after Capitol attack, embittered conspiracy cult holds out for last-ditch effort to revive former president – but law enforcement warns that the insurrection was not an isolated event

  • Some professional athletes have suffered steep performance declines after contracting COVID-19

    A number of big name professional athletes contracted COVID-19 over the past year and there have been cases where their performance suffered as a result.

  • Australia appeals to EU over Italy's vaccine block

    After Italy blocked a shipment of COVID-19 vaccines to Australia, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has appealed to the European Commission to intervene.Italy barred the planned export of around 250,000 doses of AstraZeneca's vaccine, after the drug manufacturer failed to meet its European Union contract commitments.Italy's decision was given the approval of the Commission, as anger simmers in Europe over the slow supply of vaccine doses.Italian leader Mario Draghi has told fellow EU leaders they must take a tougher approach to drug companies.Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he could understand the reasons for Italy's objection."In Italy people are dying at the rate of 300 a day. And so I can certainly understand the high level of anxiety that would exist in Italy and in many countries across Europe, as is regularly conveyed to me. And so they have some real difficulties there. They are in an unbridled crisis situation. That is not the situation in Australia. But, nevertheless, we have been able to secure our supplies."EU countries began inoculations at the end of December, but are moving at a far slower pace than many other nations.Australia started its vaccination program two weeks ago, but is under less pressure than Europe, having recorded just under 29,000 COVID-19 cases and 909 deaths.

  • Biden news: White House defends ‘Neanderthal’ slur of GOP states, as Trump shifts blame for Senate loss

    Live updates from the White House

  • ‘Someone Had to Go First’: Europe Kickstarts Vaccine Nationalism War

    Remo Casilli via ReutersROME—Hours after Italy’s newly-minted prime minister Mario Draghi kickstarted a bout of vaccine nationalism by blocking the export of vaccines made in the Eurozone, several other European countries were threatening to follow suit. Speaking on French television station BFM Friday morning, France’s health minister Olivier Véran applauded Italy’s move to keep vaccines made in Europe at home and threatened to do likewise. “We could do the same,” he said. “The more doses France has, the happier I will be as health minister. France has the right to talk to its European neighbors to ensure that laboratories respect their commitments and contracts. That seems to me to be common sense.”A spokesperson for the health ministry of Spain, which has several facilities crucial to the global vaccine supply chain, also suggested Friday that they will look at where the vaccines produced in that country are going. Europe is the world’s largest producer of vaccine components, and all three of the main COVID-19 vaccines (Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca) currently in use rely on companies to fill vials and distribute the vaccines both in the Eurozone and outside, mostly to Canada, Japan, Australia, the U.K., and the U.S. Facilities in Italy, Belgium, France, Spain, Germany, and the Netherlands are all crucial links in the global supply chain and could all block export under regulations put in place in the EU on January 30.Italy’s first tactical move of denying an export request for 250,000 AstraZeneca doses produced in Italy en route to Australia marks a new front line in a vaccine war that pits big pharma against state-run health systems. The European Commission approved the block, signaling it would do so if other countries followed suit to keep more vaccine doses in Europe. A source in Draghi’s government told The Daily Beast that Italy had been given assurances that the European Commission would back Italy up. “Someone had to go first,” the source, speaking on condition of anonymity said. “But Italy will not be the only country to protect its citizens this way.”According to a readout of a call with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Draghi justified his actions, saying he “hoped to suffocate the drug companies” to pressure them to meet their EU commitments to deliver vaccines.Panicked Euro Leaders Threaten Trade War as Vaccine Rollout Goes to HellIn a statement to journalists, Italy’s foreign ministry explained it had blocked vials that were being prepped at the New Jersey-based drug company Catalent’s plant in the Roman municipality of Anagni, citing delays in the distribution within Italy and the rest of the EU. The statement also cited a discrepancy in “the high number of vaccine doses requested for export... compared to the amount of doses provided to Italy and, more generally, to EU countries so far.”Catalent produces around 1 million Moderna doses a day, according to a company spokesperson. Currently, most of those are distributed inside the Eurozone, but the Italian foreign ministry also has to approve any foreign exports of that vaccine as well.The ministry also said the doses were heading to Australia where they would be distributed to people the EU classifies as “not vulnerable” under current regulations while robbing those who are vulnerable in Italy and the EU of protection against the deadly virus. Australia, with a population of 25 million, has logged around 25,000 COVID-19 cases and 900 deaths. Italy, by contrast, has a population of 60 million people and has logged nearly 3 million cases and 99,000 deaths so far. On Thursday, Italy recorded 22,865 new infections while Australia had less than a dozen.The European Commission set up the framework for blocking exports of COVID-19 vaccines produced in Europe on January 30, as the vaccine battle that has largely targeted the British-made AstraZeneca vaccine heated up. The EU regulation makes it compulsory for vaccine makers to get authorization from the countries where the vaccines are physically produced before exporting them. Because of Brexit, the U.K. no longer enjoys automatic trade relationships with the EU and has thus contracted various Europe-based vaccine makers to help produce the AstraZeneca vaccines sold to European countries. But the British company has fallen short of its promised deliveries and will deliver just 40 million of the 100 million first doses ordered by the EU by the end of March, a move that has drastically compromised vaccine rollouts across Europe, risking a third deadly wave of the pandemic. The EU has vaccinated just over 5 percent of its citizens compared to more than 30 percent of the U.K. population that has received at least the first shot.The World Health Organization condemned Italy’s move, calling it “a worrying trend” that risked jeopardizing the global supply chains for the coveted vaccines since the E.U. is one of the largest vaccine producers. The ban does not impact vaccines distributed to poor nations through the COVAX plan, the Italian foreign ministry confirmed. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Friday that the blocked vials won’t impact the country’s vaccine rollout, which is just getting underway. “In Italy, people are dying at the rate of 300 a day. And so I can certainly understand the high level of anxiety that would exist in Italy and in many countries across Europe,” he said in a statement to the press. “They are in an unbridled crisis situation. That is not the situation in Australia.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

  • Nasdaq loses all of its 2021 gain

    The Nasdaq went negative for the year Thursday as Wall Street got the wind knocked out of it for the third straight session, as inflation fears continued to grip the market. The tech-heavy Nasdaq is just about 10 percent below the record closing high set on February 12th - putting the index on the cusp of what is known on Wall Street as a correction.The Dow shed 345 points. The S&P 500 lost 51 points. The Nasdaq tumbled 274 points. Thursday's deep stock market declines were sparked by remarks made by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell that the Fed isn't ready to tweak its easy-money policies. That unnerved some investors who are growing worried about inflation, says Victoria Fernandez, chief market strategist at Crossmark Global Investments."I think what may be happening is that the inflation fears that the market is seeing right now, you have Powell saying they are going to be transitory, inflation rises, and so they (the Fed) are not going to move based on those. And perhaps the market is losing a little bit of confidence in the Fed and that they're going to be able to control rising inflation."Investors got another whiff of inflation from the oil market. Crude oil prices hit highs not seen in more than a year. U.S. crude jumped to nearly $64 a barrel after OPEC and its allies agreed to keep production cuts in place.Economic numbers didn't provide much comfort. New claims for unemployment benefits jumped to 745,000 last week, as brutal winter storms in the densely populated South added to job woes. Some 18 million American were on unemployment benefits through mid-February. Markets will get a closer look at the employment picture on Friday with the release of the closely-watched monthly jobs report.

  • Biden secretly limits drone strikes, amid congressional scrutiny over war powers

    Obama administration greatly expanded the use of drone strikes before later imposing checks

  • Cuomo accusers respond to his new apology

    ABC’s Mona Kosar Abdi has the new reactions.

  • ‘Always up for a fight’: Mike Pompeo refuses to rule out presidential run on Hannity

    ‘I’m always up for a good fight,’ says Trump ally

  • Prince Harry and Meghan Markle interview with Oprah will cost CBS at least $7 million to air, per report

    The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, however, are reportedly not being compensated for the interview.

  • A day after forcing marathon bill reading, Johnson says 'preference' to leave Senate

    The day after he single-handedly delayed the U.S. Senate's debate on President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill for 11 hours, Republican Senator Ron Johnson said on Friday that he could retire from office when his term expires. The 65-year-old Republican, who was first elected to the Senate during the Tea Party surge in 2010, had pledged to spend only two terms in the Senate.

  • Live stimulus updates: Senate considering changes to Joe Biden's stimulus bill after long delay

    Biden and Democratic leaders are pushing for passage before March 14 when unemployment benefits approved under an earlier relief bill expire.

  • Inaugural poet Amanda Gorman said a security guard followed her and told her she 'looked suspicious' when entering her own building

    "This is the reality of black girls: One day you're called an icon, the next day, a threat," Gorman said in a tweet about the incident.

  • Lake of the Ozarks Realtor Offered $1.5K to Have Her Former Mother-in-Law Killed: Prosecutors

    Camden County JailA prominent Lake of the Ozarks real estate agent and self-described “cheer mom” has been arrested for allegedly trying to put a hit out on her former mother-in-law. Prosecutors in Camden County say Leigh Ann Bauman, 43, offered to pay $1,500 to people in St. Louis to make her former mother-in-law’s death “look like an accident.” She was reportedly concerned about the woman causing problems with her relationship with her kids.Bauman was recorded discussing the scheme, according to a press release from the Camden County prosecutor’s office. She was given multiple opportunities to change her mind when asked by a witness-turned-informant if she was sure she wanted to carry out the killing, prosecutors said, but she moved ahead with it, at one point acknowledging that she was a Christian but noting she could always ask for forgiveness later.The realtor also is said to have made no secret about her alleged plans. After sending a text message to her daughter that said, “Your grandmother will die,” Bauman allegedly plowed ahead with the plan and pushed for her former mother-in-law to be killed in the small town of Hermann.Her alleged murder-for-hire plot fell apart when an attorney for a person who was solicited to hire people to carry out the killing contacted the Missouri Highway Patrol. She was arrested on Thursday and charged with conspiracy to commit murder and is currently being held without bond in the Camden County Jail.“We’re very appreciative of what the witness did in this case,” Camden County Prosecutor Caleb Cunningham said Friday. “We encourage anyone to contact law enforcement if there’s a crime or suspected crime.” “A local realtor had several political connections and the witness was aware of these political connections,” Cunningham said. “Out of an abundance of caution, DDCC was used to avoid any hint of impropriety,” he said, referring to the Missouri Highway Patrol Division of Drug and Crime Control.Bauman, who describes herself as a realtor, an artist, an entrepreneur, and a “cheer mom” on her Facebook page, frequently posted online about her “track record of success.” While she was most well-known as a realtor, with nearly 20 years in the industry, she also apparently set a world record in a boating race last year. Her LinkedIn account also mentions work in pharmaceutical sales and an acting and modeling career, with appearances on Days of Our Lives and in Nike commercials.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

  • Charles Barkley lost weight because he was worried about being lifted in a chair for the traditional Jewish hora at his daughter's wedding

    "Listen, I need all Jewish people on deck, brother," Chuck told Jimmy Kimmel about the chair lift. "Cause I can only get so skinny by Saturday, man."

  • NASA's new Mars rover hits dusty red road, 1st trip 21 feet

    NASA’s newest Mars rover hit the dusty red road this week, putting 21 feet on the odometer in its first test drive. The Perseverance rover ventured from its landing position Thursday, two weeks after setting down on the red planet to seek signs of past life. “This is really the start of our journey here,” said Rich Rieber, the NASA engineer who plotted the route.

  • NASA's Perseverance rover just went for its first drive on Mars, then spotted its own wheel tracks in the dirt

    Perseverance's six-wheel drive leaves quite an imprint in its path. Those wheels are ready to carry the rover over an ancient river delta.